Canada: Canada Post has been working hard to minimize the service impact to Canadians, but the union’s escalating strikes have shut down their three largest processing facilities in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal for up to 48 hours. Combined, these three plants process a million parcels and packets a day for communities across the country. Trailers full of parcels, packets and mail waiting to be unloaded and processed are backlogged in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, with more arriving. Once processed, these items have to be delivered without overburdening the delivery employees. As a result, customers could see delays of several days. Mail and parcels will not be delivered or picked up in impacted areas while the union continues their strike activity. You can sign up for updates and additional information at www.canadapost.ca/update.

Chile: Correos Chile has informed us of delays at customs due to increasing international volumes. Items can be queued up to 20 working days before being processed by Chilean customs.

Costa Rica:Correos de Costa Rica, informs us that the public sector labour unions have called an indefinite strike as of Monday, 10 September. This situation may result in collection, processing and delivery delays for both inbound and outbound mail (letters, parcels and EMS).

Guatemala: The procedure under way to enable Correos y Telegrafos to carry out its activities as designated operator and to hire additional staff is currently in the final stages. Letter-post, parcel-post and EMS services (inbound and outbound) will continue to be disrupted. Correos y Telégrafos asks operators to continue to hold items to be sent to Guatemala until services have been re-established.

India: Severe flooding has been impacting Kerala State, India, causing widespread disruption since August 11. Several roads and bridges have been destroyed and operations at Kochi International Airport have been disrupted. Mail delivery is expected to be delayed in the area for a minimum of 14 to 28 days.

Israel:Israel Postal Company informs us that a general strike, affecting postal services, flights, transportation, government services, etc., has been called for Wednesday, 7 November 2018.

Italy: Severe weather has caused major delays in the delivery of mail throughout Italy from 29 October to 2 November.

Japan: The Postal service of Japan is experiencing delays in delivery of mail items and parcels in the Hokkaido region (postcode: 00・04-09 ), due to the impact of the strong earthquake that hit this region in the northern part of Japan on 6 September 2018.

Macao: 18 September 2018, Service to Macao has resumed after clean up from Typhoon Mangkhut.

Nicaragua: The processing of post in Nicaragua has been halted due to political unrest in the country. IMS will continue to accept items for Nicaragua until the embargo has been lifted. Deliveries will suffer delays until the situation has been resolved.

Philippines: The Philippines was struck by Typhoon Mangkhut causing damage to the infrastructure in the Northern part of Luzon island. Roads are currently not passable due to landslides and floods. The processing of mail has been affected in the following postcodes since Sept 15th: 2000-2001, 2003-2004, 2010, 2012-2026, 2400, 2410, 2413-2414, 2417-2418, 2420, 2423-2424, 2600, 2604-2606, 2610, 2714, 2810, 2814-2815, 2922, 3002-3003, 3011, 3015, 3019, 3106, 3108, 3110-3112, 3116, 3602-3609, 3800-3802 and 3806. Please expect delays in delivery of 1 to 3 days.

Saudi Arabia: Parcels – Effective 1 January 2018, a value-added tax (VAT) of 5% will be applied to the total value of each individual item entering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to be paid by the consignee. This includes, without exception, all commodities being sent to Saudi Arabia, regardless of their purpose.

Sweden: The Swedish government recently announced the introduction of a 25% Value Added Tax (VAT) on all ecommerce items imported from outside the European Union by consumers into Sweden. The effective date is March 1 2018.